Global Courant
Football legend Lionel Messi had many options for his career after a spell at Paris Saint-Germain. So his decision to cross the pond and play in North America was surprising. But maybe it shouldn’t have been.
News broke this week that the Argentine great will be joining Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami, with some details still to be worked out.
But he’s not the first global soccer superstar to make a move to this side of the Atlantic late in his career – something he seemed to acknowledge when announcing his move to Miami and the MLS.
LOOK | A chance to see Messi on the pitch?
The people of Vancouver react to the arrival of Lionel Messi to the MLS
International soccer superstar Lionel Messi announced on Wednesday that he would be joining MLS squad Inter Miami. Vancouver Whitecaps fans rejoiced at the possibility of Messi coming to Vancouver for a game.
“After winning the World Cup and not being able to return to Barcelona, it was my turn to go to the United States league to play football in a different way,” said Messi, who also won the Ballon d’Or seven times. is. winner and four-time winner of the Champions League, among other achievements in sport.
Here are a few other players who have made the jump.
Pelé paves the way to New York
It was Pelé who paved the way for other superstars to come to North America nearly five decades ago.
Pelé runs onto the field at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, in August 1977. The soccer legend played in the North American Soccer League during his last three years as a professional soccer player. (The associated press)
As the three-time World Cup winner saw it, he also paved the way for the beautiful game itself.
“You can now say to the world that football has finally arrived in the United States,” Pele said in the statement reports the New York Times the day he signed a contract with the New York Cosmos or the now-defunct North American Soccer League (NASL), in June 1975.
His North American career gave his fans on this side of the border the chance to see Pelé up close when he played games in Canada.
Ontario’s then-Prime Minister Bill Davis, left, meets Pelé at Toronto’s Varsity Stadium in July 1975, prior to a football game between the New York Cosmos and the Toronto Metros-Croatia. (CBC Archives)
Pelé, who passed away last December at the age of 82, spent the past three years as a pro playing with the Cosmos.
Best holidays away from the UK
At first, George Best denied reports that he was headed to Los Angeles.
“They’ve jumped the gun,” Best said, according to a December 5, 1975 Toronto Star news report, on reports of a deal being signed. “I have other offers to consider and it may take a few months.”
George Best of the LA Aztecs plays in a game against the New York Cosmos in 1978. The Belfast-born superstar also played for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers during his time in the North American Soccer League. (Tony Duffy/Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive)
But the Belfast-born football great — a Ballon d’Or winner and former Manchester United striker — would indeed take the field for the LA Aztecs the following spring.
Best, who died in 2005 at age 59, would go on to play for several NASL teams.
Beckenbauer’s Cosmos loop
Franz Beckenbauer followed in Pelé’s footsteps by joining the New York Cosmos from 1977 for four seasons.
Franz Beckenbauer, left, fights for the ball during a game in May 1983. (The Associated Press)
The Cosmos won the national championship three times with Beckenbauer on their roster. He returned to Germany for two seasons before rejoining the Cosmos in 1983 for his final season as a player.
Beckenbauer made a name for himself internationally playing for West Germany and continental Europe playing for Bayern Munich.
But his impact in America was as great as Beckenbauer’s inducted into the US Soccer Hall of Fame in 1998.
LA beckons Beckham
It was big enough news for The National to learn that British football legend David Beckham signed a North American football deal in January 2007.
Soccer great David Beckham practices at Toronto’s BMO Field in July 2008. (CBC Archives)
“He will, football fans hope, breathe new life into the North American game,” reported The National’s Adrienne Arsenault on the day Beckham’s deal with LA Galaxy was announced.
Beckham, then 31, said he went to America not for the money, but for the chance “to hopefully build a club and a team with a lot of potential.”
The England midfielder would go on to win two titles with the Galaxy in the next few years. a Beckham’s statue now stands outside the stadium where the LA club plays.
And when Messi finally makes his debut in Miami, likely sometime in July according to the Associated Press, he will be cheered on by another global football superstar, as Beckham is one of Inter Miami’s co-owners.
